WASHINGTON – An attempt by Orange County leaders in Santa Ana and Washington to open up a popular pension plan to existing public employees will face a big hurdle in gaining Internal Revenue Service approval, analysts said this week.

The hybrid plan, which is already offered to new county employees, provides a choice of pension formulas for the worker, and for the county allows more control over future pension costs. Existing public employees want the same choice, but current IRS rules stand in the way.

Early in the month, there seemed to be a breakthrough when influential Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., who is chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, pledged to help the county get an exclusive waiver on the rule. The meeting with Camp and Orange County leaders was convened in Washington by Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, who has spearheaded efforts to get this pension fix for more than three years by appealing directly to the IRS and by introducing legislation.

But a renewed effort for a waiver, despite the heft of the participants, is likely to confront a resistant IRS.

“Given the pressure mounting on Democrats and the (Obama) administration following the announced bipartisan Murray/Ryan (budget) agreement … pushed by public employee unions, I think the likelihood of a waiver from this administration at this time is also unlikely,” said William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, in an email. He saw asking for a waiver as an opportunity that should be addressed quickly.

According to Hoagland and others, the IRS has three major sticking points: that the waiver will set an unstable precedent for other municipalities that might seek a similar provision; existing employees will jump from plan to plan to maximize their benefits and avoid taxes; and national union groups will object, claiming the county’s hybrid plan doesn’t do enough to protect pension plans.

Camp told the Register last week that he would work with Sanchez on the waiver’s language to ease the tax agency’s concerns, and that it would affect only Orange County. The Treasury department, which oversees the IRS, declined to comment.

Sanchez said Thursday that while she was unaware of any new objections the Treasury might have, that the road to resolving the issue wouldn’t be an easy one. “If it were easy, it would have been done a long time ago,” she said.

Steve Malanga, a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute who follows the pension issue, said the IRS could issue a ruling tomorrow if it wanted to, but is holding back because the waiver isn’t a priority. “The point is that they haven’t done it because they haven’t wanted to,” he said. There is no urgent timeline.

County Supervisor John Moorlach believes a return trip to Washington is needed for a meeting with the IRS, Sanchez, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, Rep. John Campbell, R-Irvine, and other supporters to show “a unified force.” Sanchez has said she will take action early in the new year.